I watched Chris Matthews, parts of Meet the Press and ABC Sunday Morning, and Face the Nation. Face the Nation takes the prize of the best show of the day - Schieffer had 4 female elected officials - two Republicans and two Democrats. It was a very interesting discussion.

I think that the Dems, which included the Arizona governor and a Congresswoman from Florida, smoked the two Republicans, a U.S. Senator from Texas and a former governor of Massachusetts. The nail in the coffin for the debate was the discussion about McCain's vote on a bill to overturn the decision in the recent Lilly-Ledbetter supreme court decision, which ruled that a woman was too late in filing discrimination claims. McCain had voted against this legislation, which the Democrat debaters skillfully had characterized as a vote against equal pay for women.

I thought that the Arizona governor had made a nice argument that Palin wasn't qualified to be VP because she was just following McCain policies which was following Bush policies. That was quite effective and Obama would be wise to follow that line of argument and stay away from the "experience" or "intelligence" argument.

One of the most interesting discussions in the Chris Matthews show was about the meeting last week between Obama and Bill Clinton. Clinton apparently told Obama that he needs to focus even more and with more passion about the economy. This "lack of passion" by Obama in the last few weeks was brought up on several shows. McCain and the Republicans are going to do everything they can to keep the campaign talking about lipstick, cultural issues, and other distractions to keep the media off the campaign, health care, and the Bush record. Obama has to drive home these issues, but, he was cautioned not to get too angry in his passion. Of course, the idea that Obama can't be the angry black man is itself sort of racist, but it is probably good advice.

But the fact is, Obama does need to drive home the economic realities and how the Republicans are not the party to bring change for the working class. Greenspan was on ABC Sunday Morning and also on Wall Street Journal Report, saying on both shows that he believes that there is a 50% plus chance that we will have a recession, and that the worst of this turndown is not behind us because housing prices have not found their low. This should be music to Obama's ears, in a weird kind of way. But he's got to get the media tuned back into that. There's still enough time.

Bill Clinton also apparently told Obama not to give up on some the swing states such as Montana and North Carolina. This was bolstered by Chuck Todd's report on the state by state polling. Todd said that Palin is having little effect on the polls in the west. However, Todd did say that current polling indicates that some swing states, like Missouri, are moving into likely Republican, and Wisconsin, which was likely Obama, has moved into being a swing state. But, he still has Obama at 233 electorale college delegates either strong or leaning Dem, and McCain at 227.

The Palin publicity surge was characterized on more than one show as a "bubble," and as George Will said, "
Bubbles will do as bubbles with do." We know what that is - break. Chuck Todd from NBC news, on Meet the Press, characterized it as bubble "deflation." Everyone knows it's coming. Just how it deflates is going to have some sway on the electorate, no doubt.

It also was mentioned on more than one show that the Obama campaign had thought early on that this election would be easy, but now are adjusting to a new mentality of dealing with a close race. I thought that was interesting. It doesn't seem to me to be consistent with how Obama and his people have approached this for them to be what amounted to an accusation of overconfidence, but it is possible. Afterall, if the Dems can't win this year, then I guess we have permanent Republican presidents.

It also was discussed on more than show whether or not Palin would take Hillary voters from Obama. I think the general consensus was that maybe a few, particularly more blue collar in states like West Virginia, but that all in all, it was a different enough demographic that they probably would stick with the Democrat.

The Matthews meter, which is going to start voting on whether McCain or Obama won the week in campaigning, and by 11 - 1, they voted that last week was McCain's. I guess I agree, but only because the mainstream media is so distracted by dumb stories.

I did watch McLaughlin Group on Friday. I didn't take any notes, but they talked a lot about Palin. I thought Eleanor Clift had a good show. Bye Bye.